Progress Report - getting there!

This blog is my "journey" towards an ideal BMI.
I'm very happy to report that I have been making really good progress on that journey! I'm currently showing a 44lb loss! When I originally joined Slimmers World I weighed 16 stone 6lb and set an arbitrary target to get to 12 stone. I am now hovering around 13stone 4lb and heading quickly to be in the 12stones! I do need to question whether that target was actually a smart target. My measure was not actually a quantity that I could measure but actually how I wanted to look.
Well, the eighties judgement call of being able to "pinch an inch" is very close - on most places I can pinch much less than an inch and my flabby gut is quickly going.
When I look in a mirror, I'm quite pleased to be able to see my six pack poking out and its not going to be long before my spare tyre has been reduced to zero.
What I have done is to stick to the Slimmers World rules!
I get up every morning at 5:30am, and am out running a five mile route by 5:55a.m. After a 700 calorie route, I drink a second pint of water and do an exercise routine every other day. Breakfast is a measured spoon of muesli and a tablespoon of local honey (I had awful hayfever this year - something I had banished recently and hope this will cure it. In any case, Ill take a hit because local honey has such a huge health benefit.)
When I get to work, I make a cup of coffee and grab a fresh glass of water. I have really tried to reduce my caffeine intake but at the moment, I am not doing very well! I have a pinetof coffee roughly every hour, stopping about 1pm, but I know this is way too much!
Lunch is a salad of lettuce, onions, beetroot, olives, tomatoes etc without any dressing.
When I get home (between 4pm and 6pm), I have a similar salad with a curry or chilli with rice (home-made and in slimmers world parlance syn free)
I'm managing to shed between 1lb and 6lb of weight a week. This isn't surprising because if I eat my recommended daily intake then the 700 calories run plus 300 calories ride to work will result in a two pounds a week weight loss (7x1000 calories)
So, I should hit my terget weight of 12stone in a few weeks!
Will it be enough? I honestly dont know, but I will apply the same rule - I will look in a mirror and when I see the person I want, then that will do.
Last weeks Slimmers World meeting flagged up a possible conflict. Im still not entirely certain how I change my target weight and how adding some muscle to it will affect whether I am classed as being "at target" and hence dont have to pay, or still some way to go (so I pay!)

Half way there!

Yesterday I got my "two stone award" and "gold body magic" award at Slimming World! For me personally, there was a statistic of far more significance: I have now crossed the "half way" point towards my target weight of 12 stone.
I'm starting to notice things about my body shape, my shorts have been falling down for a while now and I need a belt with all my trousers. I can see my whole belly now instead of having to pull it in or crane my neck. I often sleep right through the night without waking up to go to the loo. My daily run is enjoyable! I don't need an afternoon nap anymore. All good things!
Last week was the first time when my recorded weight went up, by half a pound. I put this down to the fact that I had an operation to remove the metalwork from my arm but I don't think this was the true cause. I didn't take a break from my "regime", I still ran every day and stuck to my diet. The reason for my weight loss was simple but I needed my wife to point it out to me. In slimming world speak, I was having to many syns!
After a few weeks of losing weight, and getting into the habit of running daily, I allowed myself a glass of milk every day thinking that the 700+ calories that I burn when I run 4.78 miles would cover the extra. Soon, it was a small glass of orange juice as well and then I read that chocolate nesquik was a good recovery drink after exercise so that was added to my milk. If you add the spoonful of honey that I have with my muesli, then suddenly you find that I was having over 16 syns in a meal that I always considered to be a "small meal"
All this week, I changed that to just a half cup of muesli with a spoonful of honey. The result I have lost 3lb this week!

I make up ten or more portions of chilli or curry and freeze them. Sometimes they are meat free, but if I add meat its usually one pack to the ten portions - you could quite easily quadruple the quantity of meat and it still wouldn't be excessive. To the curry, I add finely chopped onions, tinned chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, finely diced celery and carrots, fresh garlic and spices (turmeric, and curry powder, sometimes a bit more).
The chilli has a tin of baked beans, red kidney beans, chilli powder and a couple of chunks of dark (70% cocoa+) chocolate, with chili powder.
I make up two platefuls of salad every day, one for my mid-day meal and the other for the evening. I have chopped lettuce, spring onions, peppers, olives, cherry tomatoes, beetroot etc - all the usual and mostly syn free apart from the olives.
I serve this with rice (make lots of portion at once and freeze in philidelphia cheese containers). As you can see its a full plate and tastes delicious. I suppose I will get bored of it eventually but for the time being its working!

Getting myself fit.

Its been a very difficult time since I broke my elbow! Looking at data for Olecranon fractures on the web shows that most people suffer pain afterwards and that the torsion bands are usually taken out to help combat this pain.
For me, the pain has been quite bad, at times almost unbearable. I've had several strong pain killers but most only dull the pain and I have found it difficult to sleep. Probably worse is the effect it has had on my fitness The only exercise I was getting was the bike to and from work and I was constantly tired. The weight piled on, at least it seemed like it. The truth is probably that I was already overweight. When they weighed me at A&E, I was 103kg and this rose to 104kg before I decided to do something about it. I joined weight watchers and prepared myself for a long hall.
I set myself the goal of getting down to 12 stone, which is a 4 stone 6lb loss. This is 76kg.
At the start of the Summer holiday, I started to run again. I had attempted this before but the sheer effort involved as well as the pain afterwards always stopped me.
I knew that this would be hard, but I also have the time to devote to it during the Summer.
Day 1 was a very sedate 1 mile run, day 2 was 2 miles, then 3 miles, 4 miles until on day 5 I was doing a nice local circuit of 4.83 miles. I found that by running every day, the pain was actually less!
The next stage was to switch to barefoot running, or at least minimalist running. I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers and use them for my daily circuit.
Initially, this ripped my feet quite badly! I had blisters on the back of my heels and also on the instep where the strap rubs.
The effect on my legs has been interesting. I seem to be getting much more definition in my lower legs with several new "bumps" on my calves as the new muscles develop.
The running is going well, I've got the time down from 66 minutes to 55 minutes and have started to do intervals etc. with the aim of increasing the pace. My first goal is to get to sub 45 minutes.
Weight wise is also quite good news. I am now 92kg and coping with the regime quite well.
The operation to remove the torsion bands is scheduled for this Friday, and I am hoping this will have a minimal effect on my current regime.

Tweaking the format

New look for the Genesis Day One

I've been riding the Genesis Day One Alfine 11 for a couple of weeks now, but have only just been able to add the extra goodies that I ordered when I bought it.
I always strip a new bike down to make sure everything is properly greased and that my portable toolkit is sufficient for road side repairs.  I adjusted the front stem height by moving the spacers from below the stem to above, and was pleased to see that the bearings were healthy.
The Day One is a good looking bike, the Reynolds 853 white tubing is complemented by light tan seat and bar tape, albeit made of plastic. On all the pictures I had seen of the bike, the wheels were plain black but mine had some awful stickers which I think really cheapened the design. I took both wheels off and removed the tyres. The sticker came off quite easily but the sticky "sub tape" wouldn't budge. Some white spirit didn't help but it did make the residue into a sludgey soft glue that rubbed off with a bit of effort. One advantage of disc brakes is that your rims remain un-marked so I do think this is worthwhile.
The Continental Gator-skin tyres are very tight on the rims - I usually can take tyres off without tyre levers but these were too tight, so I will include a plastic tyre lever in my kit.
The disk brakes were quite simple to adjust. Loosen the fixing bolts, and cable clamp then dial in the inboard adjustment (needs a torx T25 but you can just about do it by hand if you need to), then the outboard pad. With both sides dialled in, the wheel should be locked. Torque the clamping bolts down gradually and then squeeze the brake arm slightly before tightening the cable clamp. Next, slacken off the pads until they dont rub and check that the brakes work.
I love the completely silent running of the bike, there is no chain or gear noise at all and it is quite eerie spinning along with just a slight noise from your tyres on the road.
Using Sheldon Brown's gear calculator confirmed that the Day One was slightly higher lower geared than my road bike with a 53 front triple and 18-28 cassette. Im unlikely to need the top gear but I know that some of the hills around here need a low gear, so I bought a 20 tooth rear cog to replace the standard 18. Fitting it was quite simple with only a minor fight offered from the split spring. I did have to slacken the chain off which meant I had to reverse the anti-rotation washers, at least until I put a new chain on.

Lovely Apple Green Brooks B17

Very expensive Brooks leather bar tape

Next up was a new Brooks B17 saddle. You can get the standard B17 in many different colours so I went for a lovely apple green and added some very expensive matching Brooks leather bar tape.
I left the original brown tape above the hoods, and wound some reversed black electrical tape over the top. The Brooks tape is no worse than normal tape to fit, if anything it has a little more give and flexes around the bend more easily. Getting the gorgeous cork and oak end cap in was tricky and I would say is a one off operation - they wont be coming out in one piece!
I hope the B17 will be as easy to run in as my B17s was on my Brompton (i.e. zero breaking in!)
You will see from the picture that I have mounted my Garmin 800 on a genuine Garmin centre mount. Its an ideal location and fits in with the clean lines.

Shimano A530 pedals

After my accident, I am a little wary of clipping in when the conditions get a bit slippery. I think a suitable answer is the Shimano A530 SPD pedals.
These have traditional SPD clips on one side and a wide, clip free pedal on the other,
Cycle Gear agreed to upgrade the 520 pedals that come as standard but there was a bit of confusion around the models (my fault - between the A530 and the M530 in white)
I'm very happy with the A530s, they feel almost the same as my 520s and in plain pedal mode they give a wide and firm base. I'm sure they will be great if we get any more slippery mornings but I hope there won't be too many now that we are officially into spring.
The other change I had made was to fit a pair of Crud 2 mudguards. In not going to show the details of these because I have already taken them off! I want a really minimal pair of mudguards but the problem that you have with disk brakes is getting the mudguard stays to go around the brake calliper. The Crud 2s are very close fitting and I haven't been able to get them to remain in place but not rub. Work in progress, but I'm probably not going to use mudguards.
I've also opted to not fit bottle cages. For the time being, I'm trying a backpack for hydration. Im very impressed with my chosen solution, but will post a separate review when Ive put some miles in.

Back to work!

Bone is healing nicely

Dissolving stitch escaping!

Very quick update! After eight weeks off work, I can return to work, on a phased return for two weeks.
I saw the physio and fracture registrar on Wednesday. Physio was good, he said I should be able to push it a bit more now and my length of recovery is now limited to how much pain I can stand. I'm pretty good with pain so its "light the blue touch paper!"
When I saw the fracture registrar, it wasn't such good news. He is very pleased with the bone recovery and the fracture is healing very well.
The wound is a little different. As you can see from the second photo, there is still some swelling which becomes tingly sometimes and has been painful.
The reason is right in the middle of this photo. If you look about one inch above the elbow you can see a small black stitch which is trying to escape! One of the dissolving stitches obviously doesn't like the party and my body is rejecting it by forcing it out of the scar. This has possibly led to an infection which is causing the swelling. He told me to go to my GP and ask them to look at it.
He advised me not to use ibuprofen or diclofenec (which I haven't anyway) because they inhibit bone growth. He suggested I use paracetamol and keep the dose regular as that is how they work best.
I have to comment on the fantastic volunteer staff at Pinderfields. The folk in the main atrium are very helpful and put a smile on everyone's face - I think it must be a competition that they have because every person they interact with leaves with a smile. Fantastic, thank you and well done!
My GP may not share that view! She wasn't very happy that the registrar had referred me to her when he could have issued the antibiotics. Fair point I suppose, but I do feel like a pawn in the NHS chess game sometimes!
Of course the antibiotics have upset my stomach so I wont be far away from a toilet in the next few days!
Looking forward to work, I have met with our fantastic HR manager and made arrangements and they have been most accommodating. Hopefully I will have a meeting with occupational health on the morning of my return and we have already ordered a new desk which will be shoe horned into my classroom. I'm not sure how easily I will be able to fasten my shirt, but I can wear a polo shirt.

3D printing

Prusa Mendel printer (from www.reprap.org)

Annoying!
Ive finally got round to a "deep clean" of my office, including the dozen or so boxes of old computer bits and various forgotten about projects.
One of those projects was a 3D repstrap printer which I probably got about half way through. A quick google shows that things have really come on a lot so I think its time to resurrect this project and finish it off.
3D printers consist of various blocks that are almost plug and play (think of it as object orientated hardware)
There is the main board, the CPU of the system and associated stepper motor drivers, heating element drivers, switch sensors etc.
There is the physical hardware that hold three stepper motors at ninety degrees to each other and move a carriage across the printing plane.
There is the print head, usually a heating element and a "pump" that forces a plastic into the heated chamber and out of a small nozzle. The printhead (extruder) has a thermistor that measures the temperature accurately.
Of course, this is a vastly simplified version of events!
I had bought and assembled several bits of electronics, namely a sanguino board (similar to an arduino), and three stepper motor drivers.
When I plugged everything together and tried to run a program, one of the stepper motors wasn't turning. This turned out to be a burnt out L297 chip which these boards were prone to. My choice is to replace the chip and carry on, or just buy a complete set of electronics for a new set up. In any case to get my current printer working will need me to buy another stepper motor driver (for the extruder printhead) and an extruder assembly.
Im going to opt for a complete set of electronics which will work out far cheaper in the long run. The old style of electronics were expensive and things have mover on considerably. You can now buy a microstepping stepper motor driver for £10 and a full set of electronics for £120
Initially, you create a "repstrap" printer which is a working printer that has some components bodged together using various bits of hardware. You then get the repstrap to print a replacement set of components and then rebuild the whole printer using replicated components.
Should keep me busy through the Summer!

Recovering

There has been some talk in the papers recently about the painkiller Tramadol . Its widely used in muscular and orthopaedic injuries. After some discussions (see "Snap 2"), I was given 16 Tramadol (two days at maximum dose) and two days worth of Diclofenac, another painkiller that reduces swelling.

I needed to organise a sick note for work, so I booked an appointment at my GP in Horbury. She knew I had been to hospital but didn't know what for as the notes hadn't arrived. She gave me a three week note which would take me up to half term and I was hopeful that I could return to work after then. She also gave me 200 Tramadol and diclofenac!

Tramadol are an opiate based drug that are widely available. Initially they certainly remove the pain but after a few hours the side effects make you extremely tired and you have strange dreams and even start talking to inanimate objects! I did need the maximum dose for a few days but as soon as I could I reduced the dose to the minimum. after a few weeks I was just taking them before bedtime. I switched to paracetamol and ibuprofen as my main weapon.

It was great not having a pot on, as it allowed me to move the arm as much as possible. By the time I went to fracture clinic (a week after the op), I could rotate my wrist about 75% of normal but using the elbow was very hard and my movement was restricted.

Two weeks later and I had some very bad news! My wrist movement was completely back to normal but the elbow hadn't improved at all. The physiotherapist really pushed it hard and it was extremely painful. I was told it was unlikely that I would regain full movement, and that I wouldn't be able to ride again. I was also told to stay off until my next appointment,

I called in at work the next day. Everyone was fantastic, right from the head to my colleagues in the Maths and ICT staffroom and I felt greatly valued and supported. 

When I said that I wanted to return after half term, the general advice was that I should listen to my doctors! My GP confirmed that it wouldn't be sensible to return early and so I have another four weeks off work!

I am gradually working on the elbow movement but it is really painful and I have to occasionally hit the dreaded Tramadol tablets which just knock me out. I am determined to ride my bike to work when I return!

Nexus 7 Aluminium Keyboard and Case

Mini Laptop?

Just a quick review of a new case I got for my Nexus this week.
The case is available from several outlets, but Infinite Zone sell it for the very good price of £13.99 and delivered it two days after my order.
This review is going to be quite easy, it one of the "does what it says on the tin" kind of situations. This keyboard is good quality, similar to a high end laptop although obviously much smaller. It connects easily via Bluetooth and is therefore completely wireless and doesn't need to touch the Nexus 7 in order for it to work.  The keyboard needs a separate charger which can be a problem - I am going to investigate some form of "Y" lead to split the normal micro USB into two.
Normally, you sit the nexus 7 on top of the keyboard which makes what is basically a small laptop. I thought that I would miss a mouse or touch-pad, but actually it is very easy just to touch the screen when you need to.
As a keyboard, I would rate it as 8/10, the only limiting factor is the smaller form factor, but unless you want to carry a large keyboard around with you, I dont see how this could be improved. The keyboard also makes a very good nightstand with the Nexus at just the right angle for bedside clock, if that tickles your fancy.
As a case, it is very good. The style of the cover is identical to the Nexus 7 so you effectively get a double sided Nexus 7 that can cope with most of the rigours that the Nexus is likely to encounter when in your pocket of bag. The Nexus clips into the cover but is easily unclipped. It does add to the bulk quite a lot, making the combined tablet and case 20mm thick as opposed to 10.5mm for just the Nexus. It does mean that if you use the Nexus as a normal tablet and just use the cover for protection when not in use, then you will be using the beautifully thin and light Nexus on its own, a definite advantage compared to other case designs.
Weight is also a factor, the combined tablet and case are 550g compared to just 340g for the Nexus on its own. I don't see this as an issue, as the combined weight isn't too bad and you wouldn't really notice it when you are carrying it around. Its a different story when you are using the tablet though, but as I have already said, you use the tablet completely uncovered so it isn't really a problem.
As a case, I would rate this as 8/10 - it provides good protection but could be lighter, which would probably mean it would be as good as a cover!
So, two scores of 8/10 would surely mean that I give this case 8/10 overall, but I would actually go one higher and say 9/10. The whole concept of a mini laptop and also the very high build quality without adding to the cost make this cover a steal.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Slim-Mobile-Bluetooth-Wireless-Aluminum-Keyboard-Case-for-Google-Nexus-7-/390528385359?ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:GB:3160

Snap part 2

Pinderfields

The time is flying by, I'm very tired and sleep quite a lot which is a poor excuse for leaving part 2 so long!
Once I had been robed up, the nurse walked me through to the pre-op room and I laid down on the bed. It was obvious that her role was to monitor my condition and engage me in mindless banter. The two anaesthetists used ultrasound to locate the nerves in my neck and shoulder and block them one at a time with an injection.
They worked quickly and very skilfully but when they took the pot off my arm, I was surprised to find that I could still feel it, in fact it was quite painful. They were too!
The pre-op room is a short corridor with a double door at each end. My bed was pushed through the second set of doors into the theatre. There were half a dozen people in there, all busy with their own tasks. A stand was fitted to the bed just above my chest and I gathered that my arm was going to be strapped to that whilst they did the operation. The problem was the anaesthetic wasn't blocking the pain, my arm had gone numb but I could still feel my whole arm. They gave me an injection and asked me how I was - nothing to report.
What seemed like sixty seconds later I was in a recovery ward with about thirty other patients, all post-op!

The broken olecranon
is clearly visible here

A view from above

After the op

Four torsion bands

23 metal clips and a lovely scar

Not only had I no recollection of the operation, but I didn't even remember drifting off to sleep! I'm really very glad as I think it would have been an awful experience having your elbow opened up a few inches in front of your face! The operation seems to involve exposing the joint and fitting the metalwork and that isn't going to be pleasant!
I could feel my fingers but the strange thing was I couldn't move them, no matter how hard I tried.
I can only describe the sensation of post-op as euphoria. You seem to be floating in a lovely warm cloud!
After a while, they moved me to a separate room on a different ward. The nurse kept coming in every half an hour or so and doing my observations and she said it was all looking good. I was still very sleepy when they moved me into a ward with three other patients.
My overall impression with Pinderfields is extremely good. The teams of staff were proficient, well equipped, extremely skilful and above all, gave me first class treatment. A&E in particular were superb and the fracture clinic and physio clinic were first class. You can probably guess that there is a "but" coming here!
At seven pm, they gave me a huge antibiotic injection and said it was the first of three which were to be given every six hours. I fell asleep as soon as the lights were turned off and woke up at three minutes to one. No point in falling back to sleep, I thought, as they will be giving me another jab soon. The ward was extremely quiet and I couldn't hear anyone moving about so at about 2am, I buzzed the nurse and asked her about my antibiotic. She said they had been very busy with admissions and that she would bring it.

Nice card from work!

I woke up at seven am in quite a lot of pain. The nurse gave me two codeine tablets and said that the drugs run would be round at eight am so I could have more then if I needed it. As it happened, the run came round much later and they only gave me one tablet despite me asking for more. The arm was quite painful!
The man in the bed next to me was admitted at the same time. He had fallen into a trench and got his foot caught, badly breaking several bones in his ankle. He was in agony and they gave him some morphine. This worked and he went to sleep. A few hours later he woke up and asked the nurse for some more pain relief and was told that the drug trolley would be around at dinner time. When it came around they said there wasn't any for him and that they would check. They didn't and when I left the ward at six pm, he still hadn't been given any!
The doctor confirmed I could go home just after dinner. I asked the nurse what pain relief I would be given and she said she would check. Initially, they said I would have codeine which I knew wouldn't be strong enough so I asked for something stronger. I was in quite a lot of pain but they couldn't give me anything because my notes had been sent down to the pharmacy.

Looking wasted1

My wife arrived but I couldn't really talk to her very much because of the discomfort. When the nurse eventually brought me a pack of drugs to take home, she was very dismissive and said that she thought we were "having a go at her". Something was very wrong that day, pain relief is essential and it wasn't being properly managed! I was also concerned that when it was tie to go home, they just said "theres your drugs, you can go". I wasn't told what to expect, when they would be in touch, what to do and what not to do etc.
Its a real shame because I would rate the rest of my experience at Pinderfields very highly.
As I can type (slowly!), Ill add another post in a couple of days about how the recovery is going.

Snap

Oddly shaped elbow

Last Friday was not a good day! The weather had been very cold all week and the inevitable snow had started to fall at dinnertime. It cleared from the main roads very quickly and I didn't feel at all at risk on my journey home. I normally travel down a small and interestingly named road called "Blue Butts" which is an old Yorkshire flagged horse cart road at the bottom of my street. The snow had not cleared on this road and the few vehicles that had been down had packed it into a thick layer of ice. I slowed right down, almost to a complete stop.
Click here to read more...

My wheel slipped so quickly that I don't really remember going down. I lay there on the road thinking to myself, "Mmm, that hurts..." When I checked my helmet later, it had taken a fair whack on the side, enough I suspect to have caused some damage in its own right if I hadn't had it on.

It was only a hundred yards to my house so I managed to limp home and ring my wife from the sofa. She didn't really think there was a problem until she got in and saw my arm!

We drove to Pinderfields A&E department, not looking forward to the experience as the hospital trust had been slated in the press recently.

I was sent for an xray very quickly and a male nurse saw me soon after that. The xray showed an "anterior displacement of the right olecranon", which basically means that the "funny bone" part of the elbow had snapped off. I've tried to find a similar xray image but all I have found is that it is a common break and that none of them are quite as displaced as mine. The nurses reaction was an immediate "this will need an operation" which was when the full implications started to hit home - up to that point, I had been thinking how I would ride my bike to work!

Two other nurses came and they put my arm in pot, almost straight and with a C shaped section to make it easier to remove and allow for swelling.

A cat shaped pot!

Next, I had to wait for the doctor to arrive, which took about 75 minutes. We had arrived at casualty at just the right time on a busy, snowy, Friday night and we later found out that they had 955 patients that night. We only saw half a dozen whilst we were waiting.

The doctor discussed the operation and I signed the consent form as best as I could. She said they would ring on Saturday and sent me home.

As it turned out, they couldn't fit me in until Sunday, but even that was literally a dress rehearsal where they got me all robed up before telling me that some more serious cases had come in and I was sent home again.

Getting to hospital for 7:30am on the Monday was a serious challenge. There had been a heavy snowfall and we were the first car to go down the street. Tracy doesn't like driving in slippery conditions so I had to get the car out onto the more open busy roads.

The Monday experience of Pinderfields shows just how well organised the system runs. The car park and paths had already been cleared of snow and the hospital was already busy when we got there. I was booked into a day ward which had about forty patients in the waiting room. Because of the icy conditions, I didn't fancy my chances of being "done" so I settled in for a long wait. I was third on the list and they decided to only do two patients - but number two hadn't arrived yet so there was hope! They called me in just as she arrived so it was a very close call!
Its taken me forever to write this blog post, and I'm only half way there! Part two will have to wait until tomorrow!

Aftershokz SportZ M2

The headphones come with a great case with storage for
cables etc.

I often have headphones on when I am cycling and always wear them when I am running. I aren't aware of any problems this has caused when cycling, but that might be because they are nearly always only used so I can hear and make phone calls and text messages.
Running is a different issue though, and I do like to have a strong beat with often quite loud music playing. This does mean that I cant hear and respond to my environment which can lead to safety issues.
I decided to pool together some gift money that I got this Christmas and but a pair of bone conducting headphones. These work by placing a transducer directly on the jawbone which transmits the vibrations to the ear without having to block the ear to other sound.
Aftershokz have made a bone conducting headphone for a while now and they have just launched two new models, a bluetooth one and also their Aftershokz Sportz M2.
I tried to have a look at the headphones in two branches of Evans Cycles, but neither had them in stock, in fact they did not know that Evans stocked them. This meant I had to order them online. I aren't a fan of Evans online service - they are often the cheapest and delivery is free but it always irks me that they charge extra for a fast delivery when in fact all they do is put it in the post later for the free service. I ordered the headphones last Monday, got an email saying they had been dispatched yesterday and they came today. Why couldn't they have just dispatched them sooner?
As I am waiting for a new phone, I wont be able t test them for a while, but they do sound good and I can hear what is happening around me when I wear them, which is what I wanted. My wife reports that they are quite loud and has asked me to turn them down a couple of times so obviously other people can hear you and they probably wouldn't be much good in an office environment! Once I've had chance to test them properly, I will report back!